Category Archives: Legal

Jose or Jhonny? A Choice Between Right and Braun

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Kale

 Let me show you what is probably the only defining baseball moment for Detroiters—surely my generation of Detroiters—to come out of the mid to late 90’s:

If you can look past the fact that Frank Beckmann was a part of this, it’s a pretty incredible moment. The scene is the last game ever to be played at historically legendary Tiger Stadium. One of the only bright spots in a dismal baseball future, Robert Fick, steps up to the plate with the bases loaded. With one swing of the bat, Fick immortalizes himself in baseball history, hitting a grand slam off of the roof—the ultimate send off to every Michigander’s favorite sports venue. He’s wearing Norm Cash’s number, and Frank reminds us that … Read More… →

Duck and Cover: Educational Fallout Shelters for a Sputnik Moment

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Kevin Walsh

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SideDoor

I’d only been through this doorway a few hundred times in my life–and never noticed it.  There, on the top left.

SideDoor_sign

I certainly hadn’t noticed that there was a faded “capacity” circle.  I wonder who had to enforce that one?

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How To Be A Good Defendant

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Robert Phillips

 
Here’s the fact pattern on a case I’m currently working on. The names have been changed to protect me should anyone involved ever see this article. Albert got in his car, backed out of his slightly hilly driveway and into the road. Vickie happened to be driving past the driveway–no stop sign, no yield, such a driveway alongside a road–and Albert backed right into her car. Rear bumper to passenger side doors. As I wrote previously, I represent people being sued for personal injuries, so guess which one of these drivers is my client.  You guessed it–Vickie is my client.  This Einstein Albert backed out of his driveway, paying inadequate attention to traffic on the road, and struck Vickie,who happened to be passing … Read More… →

County-Wide School Districts? Kicking the Tires in Ol’ Machiavellian Michigan

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Kevin Walsh

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Quoting billboards is kind of a family hobby.  “Keep up the good work, Governor Snyder,” my son read on I-96 last Tuesday.

“Kind of like, ‘Brownie, you’re doing a helluva job,’” he chuckled.

My poor kids have, surely by osmosis while sitting at eternal dinners with me, come to expect no good news from our state’s capital for most of their lives.  And this morning’s headlines didn’t change that pattern.

Growing up in the micro-town of Clawson, Michigan, I was amazed, even as a clueless junior high student, that we had our own superintendent.  Heck, most of us couldn’t believe we had our own laundromat.

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“Loying:” Common Misperceptions About The Practice of Law.

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Robert Phillips

atticus-finchSo, you want to know what I do for a living?

To those of you who have read my posts and feel I should keep my day job, remember that you’ve probably never seen me at my day job.  If you had, possibly you’d encourage me to keep writing. I am a lawyer: I spend my days loying.  Specifically, I’m a trial defense attorney handling personal injury cases. It’s typically auto accidents, but in my past, I’ve handled elevator-related injuries, construction site injuries, and sidewalk or business slip and fall injuries. Fed by a diet of television lawyers, many lawyers dream about practicing all … Read More… →

The Four Ignored Elephants of Quality in the Classroom & Teacher Retention

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Kevin Walsh

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HeffaI was reminded of Winnie the Pooh and his hallucinogenic-trip, envisioning heffalumps and woozles, the other day…

My priest was giving me an update on contract talks with his elementary teachers. “I tell them, ‘You only work 3/4 of the day and 3/4 of the year, why should you expect full-pay anyway?’”

I wanted to say “Yeah, Padre, and you only work three hours on Sundays and get free clothing, room and board.” But then I’d have to escort him to the confessional right … Read More… →

Uncle Richie Reaches Home.

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Robert Phillips

smile 5

This past weekend, I flew back to Philly to go to the latest of the three funerals I’ve had to attend over the past few months. My paternal grandmother was the first in the series, having passed last September; a good friend of mine “went home” just before Christmas, an event I wrote about in these pages already (My Fading Accent); and this time, it was the funeral of my Uncle Richie. Frankly, with no disrespect intended, I was not very close to him, although he was a steady presence of my life. I don’t write to cremate Richie or to praise … Read More… →

Kids with Guns.

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Robert Phillips

guns for kids

In my several rewrites of this article, I’ve taken great pains to remove traces of my own emotional reaction to this issue in an effort to present an objective, fair analysis. I hope I’ve succeeded.

The National Rifle Association is a soul-less, sucking black hole of misanthropy and a national disgrace. It’s without a trace of cognitive dissonance that they argue the answer to the problem of gun violence is increased gun sales. Background check for potential gun-purchasers would infringe on our rights and also cost lives, the argument goes.

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We Shalt Not Kill Either!

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Robert Phillips

<> on April 15, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts.

As far back as I can remember, I have argued against the death penalty, but so often over the past decade, I found my voice weaker, my stance less certain. The events in Boston yesterday reminded us all of one basic fact that will not be ignored: people suck. We’re not necessarily wrong when we tell ourselves that most people—the overwhelming majority of people–are basically good, even if a few exceptions so often demand our attention. But those exceptions at times open fire on parents carrying infants, putting 5 bullets in an … Read More… →

The Sissy Factor: Pitino’s Duck-and-Cover & NFL in Court

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Kevin Walsh

Pitino

There was an interesting moment during Rick Pitino’s obligatory handshake-walk at the end of Monday’s exciting NCAA championship game.  As the pyrotechnics began with a bang, Pitino did what I also did 12 hours away.  It was the instinctive “duck and cover” move that probably sent us up a tree a million years ago and kept our species alive long before we developed 30-round magazines for our rifles.

Of course, the next day on talk radio, a significant percentage of calls were comparing Pitino’s Barney Fife to John Beilein’s Dirty Harry-stroll-through-the-chaos.

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The Arguments Against Gay Marriage

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Robert Phillips

It took two days of Supreme Court hearings to prove that people still oppose gay marriage and are willing to go to great lengths to prevent it.  Two days. Granted, the two days were devoted to the constitutionality of two different laws: Proposition 8, a voter referendum in California declaring same sex marriages in that state invalid, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, defining marriage as a man/woman union. To state the two positions in brief, proponents of gay marriage feel they are being denied equal protection under the law, denied access to the rights of married partners for health benefits, inheritance, etc., and that they are being singled out as a result of their status under a “separate but equal” theory. Opponents of … Read More… →

Harper High

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Robert Phillips

obama in chi (1)

For the past two weeks, “This American Life” presented stories revolving around Harper High School in Chicago. Last year, 29 kids attending Harper were shot, 8 died. 29 shot, 8 died. We all remember vividly Newtown, Ct, the Aurora theatre murders, even Columbine so many years ago. Harper represents a more gradual mass murder, and one that deserves more attention that it will likely get. Honor student Hadiyah Pendleton made news by being gunned down a few weeks after the presidential inauguration she attended. But the news died down.  I suspect no one will hear about Harper after TAL moves on … Read More… →